ENGLISH EDITION

Lula da Silva, the Only PT Candidate

Everywhere in Brazil the people have shown their support for the former president. (Photo taken from cubadebate.cu)

The PT National Direction reaffirmed that Lula will be its candidate to the Presidency of the Republic and his nomination will be official on July 28

When he seemed to be immune after four years of judicial persecution and a permanent media massacre, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva continues to be the only irreplaceable piece in the Brazilian political-electoral board.

Political prisoner in isolation and under the custody of the Federal Police (FP) in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná from last April 7, the former Brazilian president is still unassailable for the possible candidates to the presidential elections of next October.

Three surveys, all carried out after federal judge Sergio Moro ordered the anticipated imprisonment of the greatest popular leader of Brazil, confirmed the favoritism of Lula for the coming polls, whatever the scenario he had to face.

The first to encourage to measure the state of opinion after the incarceration of the founder of the Workers’ Party (PT) was the Institute Datafolha and it did it in a biased way, by virtually excluding the nomination of Lula, putting him in only three hypothetical circumstances.

‘Folha de Sao Paulo attempts to substitute electoral justice’, alerted then digital daily Brasil 247 and recalled that in Brazilian electoral legislature ‘does not exist an impediment for a man in jail -and even more so a political one condemned without evidence as the former president can dispute an election’.

In any way, in the three contexts in which the lead in vote intention obtained by Lula over the second candidate in the list, the aspirant of extreme right, Jair Bolsonaro (Social Liberal Party) was at least of 15 percent points.

Thus, Lula would receive the support of 31 percent of electors in the first round in two probable scenarios and 30 percent in the third, while Bolsonaro would be at most 16 percent.

If a second round were necessary, the situation would be similar and its favoritism would also be notorious.

Always included in only three possible scenarios, the former president would obtain 48 percent of the votes against 31 percent Bolsonaro or 27 percent the former governor of Sao Paulo and precandidate of the Party of Brazilian Social Democracyh (PSDB) Geraldo Alckmin.

After that, a new survey -this one of the Institute Vox Populi- confirmed the strength of Lula’s candidacy when it revealed that if he participated in the electoral race, 44 percent of those interviewed would vote for him and 13 percent more could get to do that.

The second best, possible aspirant of the Socialist Brazilian Party (PSB) Joaquim Barbosa, would be voted surely by 14 percent of voters and could be supported by another 27 percent.

Meanwhile, in the spontaneous vote, 39 percent anticipated that they would vote for Lula; nine percent for Bolsonaro and two percent for Barbosa or the aspirant of the Sustainability Network, Marina Silva.

If a second round were necessary, the triumph of who were president best valued in history of Brazil, would be overwhelming. Compared to Silva, Lula would receive 54 percent of the votes, compared to 16 percent his rival; against Alckmin he would win 56-12, while competing against Bolsonaro the victory would be 55-17.

Last but not least, a poll carried out by the Brazilian Institute of Public Opinion and Statistics (Ibope) for the network Band News and limited only to the state of Sao Paulo, it evidenced once more the favoritism of Lula with 22 percent of the vote intentions, against 14 percent Bolsonaro and 12 percent for former governor of Sao Paulo, Alckmin.

Whe commenting the results of the surveys, the member of the Institute of Debates, Studies and Alternatives of Porto Alegre (Idea) Jefferson Miola, warned that the election ceased to be a certainty in the institutional calendar of Brazil, before the impossibility that coupists have to continue their projects in the grounds of democracy.

‘The survey leaves certainty of the illegitimacy of an election without Lula, as well also the illegitimacy of an eventual government resulting from a fraudulent election’, said Miola and added these results indicate ‘the uncontestable rejection of all the candidates of the right -from the liberal to the fascist’.

In the opinion of the analyst, in the face of that reality it could be foreseen a horizon of deepening of the coup and political repression against the PT and the left, to prevent the appearance of any scenario that can escape the control of coupists.

LULA, THE PT CANDIDATE

In two resolutions approved in April by its National Direction, the PT reaffirmed that Lula will be its candidate to the Presidency of the Republic, his nomination will be officialized on July 28 and will remain registered before the Supreme Electoral Court (TSE) on August 15, as it is established.

‘The candidacy of Lula is the response of most of the people to the coupist government’, stressed the Workers’ Party and set the main task at this moment to defend the innocence of Lula, fight for his freedom and make true the right of the Brazilian people to vote for his main leader.

No one will talk of democracy in Brazil while the greatest popular leader of the country remains in jail as a political prisoner, kept in isolation and without recurring in freedom to an unjust sentence, as is the right of every citizen, it stressed.

It also pointed that no one will speak about justice in the country, while the process of Lula was not reviewed and annulled due to the illegalities, biases, manipulations and the crushing of defense of which the former president was a victim and second instances.

In fact, the PT already presented the members of the work group that will ready the proposal of the government program for the presidential campaign, which will have at center stage the combat against misery and unemployment to achieve a social transformation in Brazil, as well as the interruption of the accelerated process of selling the national patrimony started by the government of Michel Temer.

In regard to the possibilities that the candidacy of the historical leader of the PT, still in prison, can be registered, the former minister of Justice Eugenio Aragon was crystal clear in recent statements to the media.

‘From the judicial point of view, yes, Lula can be a candidate’, affirmed and explained the law is clear about it that some condemned in second instance can be eligible if there exists a resource of that decision before the higher courts.

Then all is going to depend a lot on how the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) receives the special recourse that the defense of the former president must submit, he anticipated.